Synthase of cereulide produced by Bacillus cereus, gene encoding the same and method of detecting cereulide

ABSTRACT

It is intended to provide a method of conveniently and quickly detecting cereulide which is an emetic toxin produced by  Bacillus cereus . Cereulide is detected using the presence of cereulide synthase in a specimen as an indication. The presence of cereulide synthase is examined by detecting a nucleic acid encoding this enzyme or by an immunological method with the use of an antibody specific to the enzyme.

This application is a 371 US filing of PCT/JP03/06132, filed May 16, 2003.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to an emetic toxin (cereulide) produced by Bacillus cereus and a method of detecting cereulide. The present invention can be used for detecting cereulide in clinical laboratory tests, food inspection, or the like.

BACKGROUND ART

It is known that heat-treatment is invalid to Staphylococcus aureus diarrhea toxin and Bacillus cereus emetic toxin among bacterial toxins that contaminate into foods to cause food poisoning because they are heat resistant toxins. As to Staphylococcus aureus toxin that is extremely important in food hygiene, the detection method thereof is established. Meanwhile, any appropriate methods of detecting Bacillus cereus emetic toxin have never been developed to date. Since Bacillus cereus forms spores that are resistant to heating at 100° C. for 30 minutes, it is difficult to perfectly kill them by boiling. Therefore, contamination due to Bacillus cereus emetic toxin is a problem not only in unheated foods but also in heated foods. Bacillus cereusis known worldwide as a bacterium causing food poisoning, and also in Japan, many food poisoning cases due to this bacterium has been reported. In 1994, the emetic toxin (named as “cereulide”) was isolated and purified from Bacillus cereus and the chemical structure thereof was determined (Agata, N., et al FEMS Microbiol. Lett. 121, 31-34 (1994)). Accordingly, a method of detecting cereulide by using HEp-2 cells was developed (Agata, N., et al FEMS Microbiol. Lett. 121, 31-34 (1994)).

Herein, clarifying the presence of an emetic toxin (cereulide) in foods and other specimens is very important in management of food manufacture according to HACCP, and the development of methods of detecting thereof has been demanded worldwide. However, any methods of carrying out detection of Bacillus cereus and detection of cereulide simply and rapidly have never been developed to date. Since the method using HEp-2 cells as mentioned above also requires skilled technique and has difficulty in simple and rapid detection and in treating a large number of specimens simultaneously. Furthermore, in a case where the specimen is vomit, feces, foods or smear samples of a patient, before identification of Bacillus cereus, procedures from enrichment culture, isolation culture through pure culture and confirmatory culture have to be carried out. Each culture step needs 18 to 24 hours and about no less than 4 days in total time required.

The present invention has been made under the above-mentioned circumstances, it is an object of the present invention to provide polypeptide and nucleic acid, etc. that can be used for detecting cereulide, and a method of rapidly detecting cereulide using the polypeptide and nucleic acid, etc.

DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION

The present inventors have investigated earnestly in view of the above-mentioned problems. As a result, firstly, they found out enzymes involved in biosynthesis of cereulide and at the same time succeeded in identification thereof. When they compared the base sequence of gene encoding this enzyme with the corresponding gene possessed by Bacillus cereus that does not produce cereulide, they found a sequence different between both sequences. They reached finding that the use of this different part makes it possible to detect cereulide. The present invention was made based on the above-mentioned findings and it provides the following configurations.

[1] A polypeptide having an amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1, or a polypeptide having a sequence in which a part of the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1 is modified and which has a synthesis activity of cereulide.

[2] A polypeptide having an amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 3, or a polypeptide having a sequence in which a part of the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 3 is modified and which has a functional structure of the polypeptide responsible for a synthesis of cereulide.

[3] A nucleic acid encoding either of the polypeptides described in [1].

[4] A nucleic acid encoding either of the polypeptides described in [2].

[5] A vector carrying the nucleic acid described in [3] or [4].

[6] A transformant transformed with the vector described in [5].

[7] A nucleic acid having at least a part of a sequence of a region directly responsible for a synthesis activity of cereulide in a base sequence of SEQ ID NO: 6, or at least a part of the sequence complementary to the base sequence of the region.

[8] A nucleic acid having at least a part of a base sequence of SEQ ID NO: 7 or at least a part of a sequence complimentary to the base sequence.

[9] A nucleic acid having at least a part of a sequence complimentary to a region directly responsible for a synthesis activity of cereulide in a base sequence of SEQ ID NO: 8.

[10] A nucleic acid having at least a part of a sequence complimentary to a base sequence of SEQ ID NO: 9.

[11] A pair of nucleic acids designed so as to specifically amplify a DNA region including at least a part of a region directly responsible for a synthesis activity of cereulide in DNA encoding a polypeptide having a synthesis activity of cereulide.

[12] A solid phase nucleic acid obtained by fixing the nucleic acid described in any of [7] to [10] to an insoluble support.

[13] An antibody which specifically binds to cereulide synthase.

[14] An antibody that has a binding activity to polypeptide containing an amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1 and does not have a binding activity to polypeptide including an amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 2.

[15] A kit for detecting cereulide, including the nucleic acid described in any of [7] to [10], the nucleic acid described in [11], or the solid phase nucleic acid described in [12].

[16] A kit for detecting cereulide, comprising:

-   -   a pair of the nucleic acids described in [11];     -   an enzyme for amplifying DNA; and     -   a DNA synthesis reagent.

[17] A kit for detecting cereulide, comprising:

-   -   the antibody described in [13] or [14]; and     -   an antigen-antibody reaction reagent.

[18] A method of detecting cereulide, the method including steps of examining the presence of (a) or (b) in a specimen,

-   -   (a) a polypeptide having an amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1,         or a polypeptide having a sequence in which a part of the amino         acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1 is modified and which has a         synthesis activity of cereulide; and     -   (b) a nucleic acid encoding either of the polypeptide described         in (a).

[19] A method of detecting cereulide, the method including the following steps of:

-   -   (i) carrying out a DNA amplification reaction by using a pair of         the nucleic acids described in [11] using DNA in a specimen as a         template; and     -   (ii) detecting the amplified DNA.

[20] A method of detecting cereulide, the method including the following steps of:

-   -   (iii) preparing cDNA using mRNA in the specimen as a template;     -   (iv) carrying out a DNA amplification reaction by using a pair         of the nucleic acids described [11]; and     -   (v) detecting the amplified DNA.

[21] A method of detecting cereulide, the method including the following steps of:

-   -   (I) bringing a specimen into contact with the antibody described         in [13] or [14]; and     -   (II) detecting an antigen-antibody reaction product after the         step (I).

[22] The method of detecting cereulide described in any one of [18] to [21], wherein the following steps are carried out as a pretreatment:

-   -   (A) a step of inoculating a specimen in a growth medium of         Bacillus cereus and culturing thereof.

[23] The method of detecting cereulide described in any one of [18] to [21], wherein the following steps are carried out as a pretreatment:

-   -   (A) a step of inoculating a specimen in a growth medium of         Bacillus cereus and culturing thereof; and     -   (B) lysing or breaking the cultured Bacillus cereus.

Note here that the DNA of the present invention is not limited to a double stranded DNA and is intended to include a single stranded DNA (sense strand and antisense strand). Furthermore, the DNA of the present invention includes DNA having arbitrary base sequences considering the codon degeneracy. Furthermore, the configuration of DNA is not limited and includes a cDNA, a genome DNA, and a synthetic DNA.

Furthermore, in the present invention, polypeptide means a polypeptide in a broad sense and is used as a term including a peptide bond of plural amino acids, which are linked by peptide bond, and includes oligopeptide, polypeptide in a narrow sense and protein.

In the present invention, an emetic toxin produced by Bacillus cereus is referred to as cereulide.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a state of a stained gel in which the gel was obtained by subjecting a PCR amplified product to electrophoresis in an Example of the present invention. The results of solutions after PCR reaction of electrophoresis are shown, where NC7401 strain, NC-T strain, NC-G15 strain, NC327 strain, NC-1-55 strain (strains mentioned above are cereulide-producing strains), ATCC14579 strain, B-4ac strain, PHLS2668 strain, PHLS4433 strain, NC1225 strain (strains mentioned above are cereulide non-producing strain), Bacillus thuringiensis (HD73) and Bacillus sabtilus (ATCC21332) are shown in this order from the left lane.

FIG. 2 shows a state of a stained gel obtained by subjecting PCR amplified products having different DNA concentrations to electrophoresis. Lanes No. 1, 2, 3 and 4 are lanes showing PCR amplified products from samples of 300 ng, 3 ng and 0.3 ng are subjected to electrophoresis, respectively.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

The first aspect of the present invention relates to a polypeptide having a synthesis activity of cereulide (hereinafter, also referred to as “cereulide synthase”). The cereulide synthase provided by the present invention contains an amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1. This enzyme was identified by using a cDNA library of Bacillus cereus as shown in Examples mentioned below. Cereus synthase is responsible for synthesis of cereulide and found only in Bacillus cereus producing cereulide. Therefore, the presence of this enzyme in a specimen reflects the presence of the production of cereulide. Thus, cereulide synthase is useful in that it serves as an index for detecting cereulide.

On the other hand, if an antibody specifically binding to cereulide synthase can be obtained, by an immunological method using this antibody, the detection of the enzyme, that is, the detection of cereulide can be carried out. Therefore, the polypeptide (cereulide synthase) provided by the present invention is useful in that it can be used as an immunogen (antigen) for producing such an antibody.

Herein, a polypeptide containing an amino acid sequence obtained by modifying a part of the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1 (hereinafter, referred to as “modified polypeptide”) may be used for detecting cereulide similarly to the above-mentioned polypeptide as long as the polypeptide has a synthesis activity of cereulide. An example of such a polypeptide includes a polypeptide containing amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1 in which a conformation responsible for a synthesis activity of cereulide is conserved.

Herein, “a part of the amino acid sequence is modified” means that one or a plurality of amino acids are deleted, substituted, added and/or inserted in the amino acid sequence. The position of the amino acid to be modified is not particularly limited as long as the synthesis activity of cereulide is maintained. Furthermore, modification may be carried out in a plurality of positions. The number of amino acids to be modified is, for example, a number corresponding to 10% or less of the number of whole amino acids, preferably 5% or less of the number of whole amino acids, and furthermore preferably 1% or less of the number of whole amino acids. The above-mentioned modified polypeptide can be produced by using a well-known genetic engineering technique.

As shown in the below-mentioned Examples, a polypeptide including amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1 is thought to consist of four domains. In the present invention, these domains are referred to as CRS1, CRS2, CRS3 and CRS4 from the side of N-terminal. From the results obtained by the present inventors, the domains characteristic to cereulide-producing bacteria were CRS3 (1805 to 2824 positions of amino acid sequence) and CRS4 (2825 to 3704 positions of amino acid sequence). Therefore, it was thought that these domains were directly responsible for cereulide biosynthesis. Thus, it is thought that a polypeptide containing either or both of these domains is an antigen particularly effective for producing an antibody specific to cereulide synthase. Consequently, the present invention also provides a polypeptide containing amino acid sequences set forth in SEQ ID NO: 3, SEQ ID NO: 4 or SEQ ID NO: 5. Note here that in these polypeptides, apart of amino acids may be modified as long as a functional structure responsible to cereulide biosynthesis thereof is maintained.

Note here that unless otherwise specified, in the following explanation, “a region directly responsible to cereulide biosynthesis” means a region consisting of amino acids at 1805 to 3704 in the amino acid sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO: 1, that is, regions of CRS3 and CRS4 (in the case of DNA, a DNA region encoding CRS3 and CRS4).

In the polypeptide of the present invention, polypeptides that are present in the natural world can be prepared as a natural polypeptide by way of an operation such as extraction, purification and the like. For example, it can be prepared from a cell of Bacillus cereus producing cereulide.

Furthermore, the polypeptide (including a modified polypeptide) of the present invention can be prepared as a recombinant polypeptide by using a genetic technology. That is to say, it can be prepared by transforming an appropriate host cell with a DNA encoding the polypeptide of the present invention and collecting polypeptides expressed in a transformant. The collected polypeptide can be appropriately purified in accordance with the purpose. When it is purified as a recombinant polypeptide, various modifications can be carried out. For example, DNA encoding the polypeptide of the present invention and the other appropriate DNA are simultaneously inserted into a vector, so that it is possible to obtain a recombinant polypeptide in which the polypeptide of the present invention and a peptide or polypeptide encoded by the other DNA are linked to each other. Such modification makes it possible to simplify the extraction and purification of the recombinant polypeptide or addition of the biological function.

The polypeptide of the present invention can be also prepared by a chemical synthesis. For example, it can be synthesized by a solid phase method, etc. that is a well-known peptide synthesizing method.

The second aspect of the present invention provides a nucleic acid encoding the above-mentioned polypeptide of the present invention. A specific example of such nucleic acid may include DNA having a base sequence of SEQ ID NO: 6 or SEQ ID NO: 7, or RNA set forth in SEQ ID NO: 8 or SEQ ID NO: 9. Alternatively, the example includes DNA in which a part of these DNAs, etc. is modified. Herein, the phrase “a part of . . . is modified” means that a part of bases constituting DNA or RNA is deleted, substituted, inserted or added. The number of bases to be modified is, for example, 1 to 100, preferably 1 to 20, and furthermore preferably, 1 to 10.

The nucleic acid of the present invention can be used as a sample in detecting cereulide. That is to say, it is useful in that it can give an index of the presence of cereulide. Furthermore, the nucleic acid of the present invention is useful in that it can be used in a process for preparing an antigen for producing an antibody capable of binding to the above-mentioned polypeptide of the present invention, that is to say, an antibody that can be used for detection of cereulide.

The above-mentioned nucleic acid can be produced by appropriately using a probe and primer, etc. capable of specifically hybridizing to genes encoding cereulide synthase (DNA having a base sequence of SEQ ID NO: 6) from an appropriate genome DNA library or a cDNA library, or a bacterial extract of cereulide-producing bacteria. Furthermore, they can be synthesized by a PCR method by using at least a part of genes encoding cereulide synthase as a template and using dNTP (dATP, dGTP, dCTP and dTTP) as a material.

A genome DNA library or cDNA library for preparing the DNA of the present invention can be produced according to a conventional method from, for example, Bacillus cereus strain NC7401.

The present invention also provides a vector carrying the above-mentioned DNA (including modified DNA) of the present invention. Any vectors can be used as long as it can carry the DNA of the present invention. However, it is preferable that in accordance with the purpose of use (cloning, expression of polypeptides) and considering kinds of host cells, an appropriate vector is selected. The insertion of DNA into the vector in the present invention can be carried out, for example, by using a well-known method using restriction enzyme and DNA ligase (Molecular Cloning, Third Edition, 1.84, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, New York).

The present invention further provides a transformant carrying the above-mentioned DNA (including modified DNA) of the present invention. That is to say, it relates to a transformant obtained by transforming a host cell with the DNA of the present invention. For example, the DNA of the present invention can be transformed by incorporating it into a host cell by a well-known gene incorporating method such as a potassium phosphate method, electroporation (Potter, H. et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 81, 7161-7165 (1984)), lipofection (Felgner, P. L. et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 84, 7413-7417 (1984)), microinjection (Graessmann, M. & Graessmann, A., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 73,366-370 (1976)), and the like. Furthermore, the transformant of the present invention can be obtained by transforming the host cell with the vector of the present invention. It is possible to use various kinds of host cells in accordance with the purposes and, for example, it is possible to use a procaryotic cell such as Escherichia coli, and an eucaryotic cell such as yeast. In a case where a system of Escherichia coli is used, pET vector (Novagen) such as pET-3c and pET-8c, etc., pBAD plasmid (Invitrogen), pGEX plasmid (Amersham Pharmacia biotech), and the like can be used as a vector.

By culturing the transformant of the present invention under appropriate conditions, a large amount of expression products (polypeptides) of the DNA of the present invention can be produced. This expression product can be used for producing antibodies that can be used for detecting, for example, cereulide synthase. Note here that by expressing as an fused protein (peptide) with His-Tag consisting of several histidines, β-D-galactosidase, GST (glutathione S-transferase), thioredoxin, maltose binding protein, Myc, Xpress, FLAG, and the like, the expression products can be easily purified.

The third aspect of the present invention relates to a method of detecting cereulide, and the method includes the steps for examining the presence of (a) or (b). (a): a polypeptide including an amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1, or a polypeptide including a sequence in which a part of the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1 is modified and which has a synthesis activity of cereulide, or (b) a nucleic acid encoding either of the polypeptides described in (a). Note here that since the presence of cereulide in a specimen means the presence of Bacillus cereus producing cereulide, the term “a method of detecting cereulide” is used as a same meaning as the term “a method of detecting the presence of Bacillus cereus producing cereulide.”

The method of examining the presence of (a) is not particularly limited. However, it is possible to use an immunological method using an antibody specific to the polypeptide to be detected.

Similarly, a method of examining the presence of (b) is not particularly limited. It is possible to use, for example, a method using a nucleic acid primer and/or a nucleic acid probe specific to the nucleic acid encoding the polypeptide to be detected, or a PCR (polymerase chain reaction) method using a pair of primers (nucleic acid) designed to specifically amplify a region specific to cereulide synthase and the modification method thereof or application method (PCR-RFLP (restriction fragment length polymorphism) method, RT-PCR (reverse transcriptase PCR) method, etc.), a Southern blotting hybridization method, a dot hybridization method (Southern, E., J. Mol. Biol. 98, 503-517(1975)), a northern blotting method, and the like.

Hereinafter, more specific examples of the methods of detecting cereulide provided by the present invention will be described. Firstly, as an example using nucleic acid amplification reaction such as a PCR method, etc., a method including the following (i) and (ii) can be used. (i) a step of carrying out a DNA amplification reaction using a pair of nucleic acids designed so as to specifically amplify a DNA region including at least a part of a region (for example, DNA region consisting of a base sequence of SEQ ID NO: 7) directly responsible for a synthesis activity of cereulide in DNA (for example, DNA consisting of a base sequence of SEQ ID NO: 6) encoding a polypeptide having a synthesis activity of cereulide by using DNA in a specimen as a template, and (ii) a step of detecting an amplified DNA. Furthermore, as a method using a RT-PCR method, a method including (iii), (iv) and (v) can be used. (iii) a step of preparing cDNA using mRNA in a specimen as a template; (iv) a step of carrying out DNA amplification reaction using a pair of nucleic acids designed so as to specifically amplify a DNA region including at least a part of a region directly responsible for a synthesis activity of cereulide in DNA encoding a polypeptide having a synthesis activity of cereulide; and (v) a step of detecting the amplified DNA.

Since an amplified region specified by a pair or primers is required to have a size capable of being amplified by a PCR method etc., the size is preferably about 4000 bp or less. Meanwhile, when the amplified region is too small, it becomes difficult to differentiate between the amplified product and a dimer of the primer, the size is preferably 50 bp or more. Furthermore, for effective amplification, it is preferable that the size of the amplification region is about 100 bp to 1000 bp.

A temperature for denaturing a double stranded nucleic acid in a PCR method etc. is about 90° C. to about 95° C. An annealing temperature for hybridizing a primer is, for example, about 37° C. to about 65° C., and polymerization temperature is, for example, about 50° C. to 80° C. In the PCR method and the modification method thereof, etc., a cycle including the heat denaturing, annealing and polymerization is repeated until the amplification products are detectable. The amplification product can be detected by using an agarose electrophoresis. That is to say, it is possible to confirm the presence and the length of a nucleic acid fragment amplified by subjecting an enzyme reaction solution to agarose electrophoresis. From the results of this electrophoresis, it is possible to determine the presence of nucleic acid having a sequence recognized by a primer in a specimen, thus making it possible to determine the presence of cereulide, that is to say, the presence of Bacillus cereus producing cereulide. For detecting the amplification product, in addition to the agarose electrophoresis, other electrophoresis and various chromatographies can be used.

Nucleic acids (for a primer or for a probe) that can be used in the method of detecting cereulide of the present invention is not particularly limited as long as they can be used for specifically detecting genes encoding cereulide synthase. For example, an example of the nucleic acid may include a nucleic acid containing at least a part of a sequence of a region directly responsible for a synthesis activity of cereulide in a base sequence of SEQ ID NO: 6, or a nucleic acid containing at least a part of a sequence complementary to the base sequence of the above-mentioned region. Herein, “a region directly responsible for a synthesis activity of cereulide” concretely means a region encoding CRS3 and CRS4, that is to say, a region having a base sequence of SEQ ID NO: 7. Similarly, in a case where mRNA in a specimen is used as a subject to be detected, it is possible to use a nucleic acid containing at least a part of a sequence complementary to a base sequence of a region directly responsible for a synthesis activity of cereulide in a base sequence of SEQ ID NO: 8. More concrete example may include a nucleic acid containing at least a part of a sequence complimentary to a base sequence of SEQ ID NO: 9.

As the probe and primer, in accordance with the analyzing method, a DNA fragment or a RNA fragment can be appropriately used in accordance with the analyzing method. The base length of the probe and primer may be a length capable of exhibiting a respective function, respectively. The base length of the primer is 10 bp or more, preferably 15 bp or more, concretely about 10 to 30 bp, and preferably about 15 to 25 bp when the selectivity or detection sensitivity and reproducing property are considered.

Note here that a primer may have some mismatch with respect to a sequence that is used as a template as long as the primer can specifically hybridizes to a subject to be amplified and amplify a targeted DNA fragment. The extent of the mismatch is 1 to several, preferably 1 to 5, and furthermore preferably 1 to 3. Also as in the probe, the probe may have some mismatch with respect to a sequence to be detected as long as the mismatch doesn't affect the detection.

Followings are concrete examples of the nucleic acids (primer set) that can be used for the method of detecting cereulide using a method with amplification of the specific DNA region, for example, a PCR method, etc.

Primer set 1 Sense strand primer: 5′-GGTGAATTGTGTCTGGGAGG-3′ (SEQ ID NO: 10) Antisense strand primer: 5′-ATTTTTATTAAGAGGCAATG-3′ (SEQ ID NO: 11) Primer set 2 Sense strand primer: 5′-GTCAAGATAAGAGGCTTCCGAATT-3′ (SEQ ID NO: 12) Antisense strand primer: 5′-AATGGAATGACCACCAAGCT-3′ (SEQ ID NO: 13) Primer set 3 Sense strand primer: 5′-AGGAAGTTCCGTTTGTGGAC-3′ (SEQ ID NO: 14) Antisense strand primer: 5′-CACATAACCTTTTGCAACTC-3′ (SEQ ID NO: 15) Primer set 4 Sense strand primer: 5′-GGCGAACTATGTGTTGGTGG-3′ (SEQ ID NO: 16) Antisense strand primer: 5′-TAAAGAGTCACCACCATAAG-3′ (SEQ ID NO: 17) Primer set 5 Sense strand primer: 5′-ACGTCAGGCAGTACTGGAAA-3′ (SEQ ID NO: 18) Antisense strand primer: 5′-TTCGATGCGGAATCCACGAA-3′ (SEQ ID NO: 19)

Nucleic acid (primer and probe) of the present invention can be synthesized by a well-known method such as a phosphodiester method. Furthermore, as a labeling material and labeling method in a case where it is used as a probe, well-known labeling materials and labeling methods can be employed. Herein, examples of the labeling materials may include a radioisotope such as ³²P, a fluorescent material such as fluorescein isothiocyanate, tetramethylrhodamine isothiocyanate, and the like; and examples of the labeling method may include 5′ labeling method using alkaline phosphatase and T4 polynucleotide kinase, 3′ labeling method using T4DNA polymerase and Klenow fragment, a nick-translation method, a random primer method (Molecular Cloning, Third Edition, Chapter 9, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, New York), and the like.

Next, a method of detecting cereulide using immunological method will be explained. An example of the method of detecting cereulide using immunological method may include a method including: I) a step of bringing a specimen into contact with an antibody specific to cereulide synthase; and II) a step of detecting antigen-antibody reaction product after the step I (step II). Herein, “an antibody specific to cereulide synthase” means an antibody having a binding property specific to cereulide synthase. Concrete examples thereof include an antibody that has a binding property to a polypeptide containing an amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1 and does not have a binding property to a polypeptide containing an amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 2. Class of antibodies to be used is not particularly limited and antibodies classified into, for example, IgG class, IgM class, etc. can be used. Furthermore, antibody fragments such as Fab, Fab′, F(ab′)2, scFv, dsFv, etc. may be used.

Herein, an example of the measuring method may include qualitative or quantitative method such as, for example, an ELISA (Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) method, radioimmunoassay, FACS, an immunoprecipitation method, immuno blotting, and the like. Furthermore, as kinds of antigen-antibody reactions, either of a method of competitively reacting cereulide synthase in a specimen and additionally added cereulide synthase with respect to an antibody specific to cereulide synthase (competitive method) and a method that does not react competitively (noncompetitive method) may be employed.

It is preferable to use a monoclonal antibody as an antibody specific to cereulide synthase. It is advantageous because high sensitive measurement can be carried out due to high specificity of monoclonal antibody. Furthermore, it is preferable to use a sandwich method using two kinds of antibodies recognizing epitopes that are specific to cereulide synthase and different from each other from the viewpoint of sensitivity and specificity.

It is possible to use antibody in a solid phase. As an insoluble support used for making a solid phase, water-insoluble materials, for example, resin such as polystyrene resin, polycarbonate resin, silicon resin, nylon resin, etc. or glass, and the like may be used, and the material is not particularly limited. This insoluble support can support antibodies by physical adsorption or chemical adsorption.

Examples of the labeled material to be used in immunoassay may include enzyme such as peroxidase, alkaline phosphatase, β-D-galactosidase, glucose oxidase, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase and micro peroxidase, etc.; fluorescent material such as fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC), tetramethylrhodamine isothiocyanate (TRITC) and europium, etc.; chemiluminescent material such as luminal, isoluminol and acridinium derivatives, etc.; coenzyme such as NAD; biotin; and radioactive substance such as ¹³¹I and ¹²⁵I, and the like. In particular, with a method in which biotin is used as a labeled material and avidin (for example, avidin peroxidase) labeled with fluorescent dye or enzyme is reacted, measurement with higher sensitivity can be carried out.

A monoclonal antibody specifically binding to cereulide synthase can be obtained by a conventional method. Hereinafter, an example of the method of producing a monoclonal antibody will be described. Firstly, cereulide synthase is obtained and used as an antigen. Animal such as a mouse is immunized with this antigen. Thereafter, antibody-producing cells are extracted from the immunized animal and the extracted cells are fused with myeloma cells so as to obtain hybridoma cells. Subsequently, these hybridomas are made to be monoclonal, and then clones producing antibodies specifically binding to cereulide synthase is selected.

As the antigen, cereulide synthase that was isolated and purified from bacterial body of Bacillus cereus producing cereulide can be used. Furthermore, a base sequence encoding cereulide synthase is used, and a recombinant polypeptide obtained by using an expression system such as Escherichia coli can be used.

As an immunization method, for example, the following procedure may be employed: the above-mentioned antigen is mixed with Freund's complete adjuvant or Freund's incomplete adjuvant to be emulsified; a mouse is immunized with the emulsified antigen by intraperitoneal, subcutaneous, or intramuscular injection several times at predetermined intervals. An example of animals to be immunized includes rat, hamster, rabbit, guinea pig, chicken, sheep, goat, etc. in addition to mouse. After completion of immunization, the spleen is extracted from an immunized animal and antibody-producing cells are obtained. The antibody-producing cells may be collected from the lymph node, peripheral blood, etc.

The kinds of myeoma cells to be used are not particularly limited and appropriate myeloma cells can be selected with regard to an animal to be used. It is preferable to use myeloma cells derived from animals that are the same kinds of antibody-producing cells. For example, in a case where a mouse is used, myeloma cell line PAI can be used. Cell fusion is carried out by mixing an antibody-producing cells and myeloma cells at a predetermined ratio, and then adding polyethylene glycol thereto and stirring thereof. Furthermore, cell fusion can be carried out by using electrical pulse.

In order to select only hybridomas in which cell fusion was carried out, a general HAT medium (a selective medium containing a predetermined ratio of hypoxanthine, aminopterin, and thymidine) can be carried out. A culture containing hybridoma is cultivated in a container such as a 96-well plate so as to be selected later.

Next, a culture supernatant in each container was collected, and hybridoma producing antibody to cereulide synthase was selected by an ELISA method, etc. using cereulide synthase. An antibody-positive hybridoma in a container is cloned by limiting dilution technique so as to obtain a monoclonal hybridoma cell line.

A desired antibody can be obtained by purifying culture of hybridoma. Furthermore, after amplifying hybridomas to a desired number or more, the hybridomas are transplanted into a peritoneal cavity of an animal (for example, a mouse) and allowed to proliferate ascites fluid, and then the ascites fluid is purified, thereby obtaining a desired antibody. For purifying the above-mentioned culture or purifying the ascites fluid, affinity chromatography using protein G, protein A, etc. is preferably used. Furthermore, affinity chromatography in which an antigen is made into a solid phase can be used. Furthermore, ion exchange chromatography, gel filtration chromatography, ammonium sulfate fractionation, and centrifugation, and the like can be used. These methods can be used solely or in any combination thereof.

Whether or not the antibody obtained by the above-mentioned method specifically recognize cereulide synthase can be confirmed by, for example, an ELISA method using plate in which cereulide synthase is made into a solid phase.

The nucleic acid (primer or probe) used in the method of detecting cereulide of the present invention can be used in a state in which it is fixed to an insoluble support. Similarly, the antibody used in the method of detecting cereulide of the present invention can be used in a state in which it is fixed to an insoluble support. By processing the insoluble support to be used in making a solid phase in a shape of chip, beads, etc., it is possible to carry out the detection of cereulide in the specimen simply by using these fixed nucleic acid or fixed antibody.

The further aspect of the present invention provides a kit that can be used for detection of cereulide. That is to say, by using nucleic acid (including a pair of nucleic acids, solid phase nucleic acid) used for detection of cereulide, it is possible to construct a kit for detecting cereulide. The kit for detecting cereulide may include an enzyme for amplifying nucleic acid (for example, DNA synthase used for, for example, a PCR method) or nucleic acid (dATP, dCTP, dGTP, and dTTP) as a substrate, reaction reagent, and the like. Furthermore, as a standard material, it can contain cereulide synthase (which may also include a partial purified product), and intracellular extract (which may also include partial purified product) in a cereulide-producing cell line.

According to the above-mentioned kit for detecting cereulide, cereulide can be detected by targeting a nuclide acid in the specimen, but a kit for detecting cereulide by targeting a polypeptide in a specimen, i.e., cereulide synthase can be constructed. Such a kit contains the above-mentioned antibody specific to cereulide synthase (including a solid-phase antibody). Besides, a kit can be constructed including a secondary antibody bonded to the antibody, antigen-antibody reaction reagent (buffer, chromogenic substrate, chromogenic reagent, chromogenic reaction stopping solution, etc.) and the like. Furthermore, a kit may include cereulide synthase (which may also include a partially purified product) and intracellular extract of a cereulide-producing cell line (which may also include a partially purified product) as a standard material.

Specimens used for a method of detecting cereulide of the present invention are not particularly limited. Examples of the specimen may include specimens, various foods, vomit or faces of human or animals, smear samples, or the like. These specimens are subjected to a treatment with enzyme such as lysozyme, a pressure treatment, a heat treatment or ultra sonic treatment, etc. Bacterial bodies in the specimen are lysed or broken with such treatment. However, if it can be expected that cytoplasmic membrane of Bacillus cereus in the specimen is broken at the point when the specimen is collected, the lysing treatment is not necessary.

Herein, it is preferable that samples from the subject to be examined have been cultured in advance by using a growth medium (selective medium). By employing this culturing step, detection with higher reliability can be carried out.

Note here that in a case where a subject to be examined is in a liquid state, samples can be directly used in a treatment such as lysis or culture process. However, in a case where a subject to be examined is in a solid state, it is preferable that bacterial bodies are extracted by using an appropriate solvent once, and then it is used in such treatment.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to Examples.

EXAMPLE 1 Cloning of Emetic Toxin (Cereulide) Synthase from Bacillus Cereus Genome DNA Library

From Bacillus cereus NC7401 strain (deposited in Nagoya City Public Health Research Institute, National Institute of Health Sciences), a phage library was produced by using EMBL3 (Promega Corporation). About 400 of the resultant white plaques were screened, and a region specifically conserved in amino acid synthase without through a ribosome, which was a DNA fragment specifically amplified using BSC I (GGAATTCCTTAAAIGCIGGAGGAGCITATGTGCCGCTTGATCC: SEQ ID NO: 20) and II (GGAATTCCTTTIGGITTICClGTTGTICClGAIGTGTAAAT: SEQ ID NO: 21) as primers, was analyzed by a Southern hybridization method. Note here that a probe obtained by labeling a DNA fragment, which was amplified by a PCR method using chromosome DNA of NC7401 strain as a template and using BSC I and II as primers, with DIG Labeling Kits (Roche Diagnostics) was used. As a result of analysis, a plurality of insert DNA with a large expression amount are selected and they are cut by a restriction enzyme SalI and subcloned into a multi-cloning site of a cloning vector pHSG299 (TAKARA SHUZO CO., LTD.).

EXAMPLE 2 Analysis of Sequence of Emetic Toxin (Cereulide) Synthase cDNA

The sequence of each of the subcloned DNA fragments was analyzed by a cycle sequence reaction using an automatic sequencer (Applied Biosystem). By analyzing sequence information of each DNA fragment while considering overlapped sequences, a full-length DNA sequence and an amino acid sequence of cereulide synthase were determined (SEQ ID NO: 1). When this sequence was investigated in detail, cereulide synthase consists of four domains, each of which synthesizes one amino acid respectively. Two domains at N-terminus were conserved widely also in cereulide strains that do not produce cereulide, but two domains at C-terminus are specific to strains producing cereulide.

EXAMPLE 3 Detection of Cereulide Using PCR Method

(3-1) Preparation of Specimen

Specimens were prepared from Bacillus cereus (cereulide-producing strains and cereulide non-producing strains: 5 strains each) shown in a Table of FIG. 1 in accordance with the following procedures. As a control group, Bacillus thuringienesis and Bacillus subtilis were used.

Each bacterial body was respectively inoculated in an appropriate enrichment medium (LB medium) and cultured under aerobic conditions at 37° C. over night, followed by collecting bacterial bodies from 1.5 ml of cultured medium by centrifugation. The collected bacterial bodies were washed with 10 mM Tris buffer (pH7.5) once, and then suspended in 0.5 ml solution in which lysozyme was dissolved in the buffer so that the concentration became 1 mg/ml, which was allowed to stand in this state at 37° C. for 10 minutes to be lysed. Subsequently, equivalent amount of phenol saturated with the above-mentioned buffer was added to the lysate and stirred sufficiently. Centrifugation was carried out, followed by collecting a supernatant solution and subjecting it to ethanol precipitation treatment so as to precipitate the nucleic acid components. The resultant precipitate was dissolved in 1 ml of the above-mentioned buffer. This solution was used as a specimen in the detection method mentioned below.

(3-2) Synthesis of Primer for PCR

Based on the base sequence information of cereulide synthase shown in SEQ ID NO: 6, a sequence specific to the cereulide-producing strain was selected and the following primers (oligonucleotide) were chemically synthesized.

Sense strand primer: 5′-GGTGAATTGTGTCTGGGAGG-3′ (SEQ ID NO: 10) Antisense strand primer: 5′-ATTTTTATTAAGAGGCAATG-3′ (SEQ ID NO: 11) (3-3) PCR Method

A reaction solution (about 30 μl in total) was prepared by adding 16.05 μl of sterile distilled water, 3 μl of 10× reaction buffer, 4.8 μl of dNTP solution, 1.5 μl of sense strand primer, 1.5 μl of antisense strand primer, and 0.150 μl of heat resistant DNA polymerase into 3 μl of each of the above-mentioned specimen. Note here that the composition of 10× reaction buffer consists of 500 mM KCl, 100 mM Tris-HCl (pH8.3), 15 mM MgCl₂ and 0.1% (w/v) gelatin. The dNTP solution was a solution obtained by mixing dATP, dCTP, dGTP and dTTP so that the respective final concentration became 1.25 mM. Furthermore, each primer was an aqueous solution (50 DU/ml) of chemically synthesized purification material obtained in (3-2). As a heat resistant DNA polymerase, Taq DNA polymerase (5 unit/ml: Perkin Elmer Cetus) was used.

The PCR was carried out under the following conditions: heat denaturation: 94° C. for 1 minute, annealing: 55° C. for 1 minute, and polymerization reaction: 72° C. for 1 minute. A process from heat denaturation to polymerization reaction by way of annealing was defined as 1 cycle. This cycle was carried out 35 times. Note here that PCR reaction was carried out by the use of DNA Thermal Cycler (Perkin Elmer Cetus).

(3-4) Detection of PCR Amplification Product

In order to detect amplified DNA fragments from PCR reaction solution, agarose electrophoresis was carried out under the following conditions. As an agarose gel, a gel having a gel concentration of 2% (w/v) was used. Staining of gel after electrophoresis was carried out by the use of ethidium bromide (0.5 μg/ml). The electrophoresis was carried out under the conditions: applied voltage: 100V, and electrophoresis time: 30 minutes. The other conditions and operation methods of electrophoresis followed a method described in Molecular Cloning, Third Edition, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, New York.

FIG. 1 shows a stained gel. In FIG. 1, the results of solutions after PCR reaction of electrophoresis are shown in which NC7401 strain, NC-T strain, NC-G15 strain, NC327 strain, NC-I-55 strain (strains mentioned above are cereulide-producing strains), ATCC14579 strain, B-4ac strain, PHLS2668 strain, PHLS4433 strain, NC1225 strain (strains mentioned above are cereulide non-producing strain), Bacillus thuringiensis (HD73), Bacillus sabtilus (ATCC21332) are shown in this order from the left lane. As shown in FIG. 1, in the cereulide-producing strain (lanes 1 to 5), it is shown that PCR amplification product of about 450 bp was obtained. Meanwhile, in the cereulide non-producing strain and Bacillus thuringiensis HD73, Bacillus sabtilus ATCC21332, bands corresponding to this PCR amplification product were not detected. From the above-mentioned results, it was confirmed that by the methods according to this Example, the cereulide-producing strain, that is, the cereulide could be specifically detected.

EXAMPLE 4 Micro Detection of Cereulide-Producing Bacillus cereus by Using PCR Method

(4-1) Calculation of the Amount of DNA in Specimen

By using Bacillus cereus NC7401 strain shown in a Table of FIG. 1, specimen was prepared in accordance with the method shown in (3-1) of Example 3 to obtain a purified DNA preparation. Then, the amount of DNA in this preparation was calculated by measuring absorbance at the wavelength of 260 nm.

(4-2) Detection of PCR Amplification Product

By diluting a specimen with reference to the amount of DNA calculated in (4-1), samples respectively containing DNA in the amount of 300 ng (number of molecules: about 1×10²), 30 ng (number of molecules: about 1×10¹), 3 ng (number of molecules: about 1) and 0.3 ng (number of molecules: about 1×10⁻¹) were prepared. By using these samples, PCR reaction was carried out by the methods described in (3-2) and (3-3) of Example 3, followed by detection of a PCR amplification product by the method described in (3-4). FIG. 2 shows a state of a stained gel obtained by subjecting each of the PCR amplified products to electrophoresis. Lanes No. 1, 2, 3 and 4 are lanes showing PCR amplified products from samples of 300 ng, 3 ng and 0.3 ng are subjected to electrophoresis respectively. Even in lane 3, i.e., in a case where a sample containing 3 ng of DNA was used, a band of interest can be confirmed. This means that DNA amount corresponding to 1 to several molecules of Bacillus cereus chromosome is detected. Thus, theoretically, if several molecules of the cereulide-producing Bacillus cereus are present in the specimen, the presence of the cereulide-producing Bacillus cereus, that is, cereulide can be detected.

The present invention is not limited to the description of the above embodiments. A variety of modifications, which are within the scopes of the following claims and which are achieved easily by a person skilled in the art, are included in the present invention.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY

The present invention provides the amino acid sequence and the base sequence of an emetic toxin (cereulide) produced by Bacillus cereus, thereby making it possible to detect cereulide using a nucleic acid probe and an antibody. The use of the antibody or nucleic acid probe specific to cereulide enables simple and rapid detection of cereulide. In one example of the detection method of the present invention shown in Examples, it took about 3 hours to amplify nucleic acid in a specimen and about 30 minutes to obtain the detection results thereafter. Thus, it was possible to detect cereulide, which had never been detected conventionally, for extremely short time.

Furthermore, according to the method of the present invention, it is possible to detect cereulide with high sensitivity. This means that cereulide can be detected from a small amount of detection and that a pretreatment of specimens can be simplified. Furthermore, in the method of detecting cereulide, instead of detecting cereulide directly, the presence of cereulide synthase is examined, and from the results, the presence of cereulide in the specimen is determined. As the characteristics common to strains producing cereulide in Bacillus cereus, it is thought that they have a cereulide synthase activity identified in the present invention and, that is to say, the cereulide-producing strain necessarily contains cereulide synthase genes. Moreover, since no other species that produce the same toxin as cereulide has been known, by allowing cereulide synthase or gene encoding thereof to be a target for detection, it is possible to specifically or selectively detect the presence of cereulide in a specimen (the presence of cereulide-producing bacteria). Therefore, result with high reliability can be obtained and so the present invention becomes suitable for food evaluation and clinical laboratory tests. 

1. An isolated nucleic acid whose sequence consists of a coding sequence encoding the polypeptide having the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:
 1. 2. A vector whose sequence comprises the nucleic acid sequence described in claim
 1. 3. An isolated cell transformed with the vector described in claim
 2. 4. A composition consisting of a pair of nucleic acids, wherein each nucleic acid of said pair is an isolated nucleic acid whose sequence consists of at least 15 nucleotides or more of a sequence encoding a polypeptide having cereulide synthesis activity in the nucleotide sequence of SEQ ID NO: 6, or at least 15 nucleotides or more of the sequence complementary to said encoding sequence region, said pair of nucleic acids being designed so as to specifically amplify a DNA region comprising at least a part of a region encoding a polypeptide having cereulide synthesis activity.
 5. A kit for detecting a cereulide polynucleotide, comprising: the pair of the nucleic acids described in claim 4; an enzyme for amplifying DNA; and a DNA synthesis reagent.
 6. The isolated cell of claim 3, wherein the cell is a procaryotic cell.
 7. The isolated cell of claim 3, wherein the cell is an eucaryotic cell.
 8. A composition consisting of an isolated nucleic acid whose sequence consists of at least 30 bp or more of a sequence of a region encoding a polypeptide having cereulide synthesis activity in the nucleotide sequence of SEQ ID NO: 6, or at least 30 bp or more of the sequence complementary to the nucleotide sequence of the region, wherein the nucleic acid has 30 bp or more of a sequence of SEQ ID NO: 7, or 30 bp or more of the sequence complementary to the nucleotide sequence of SEQ ID NO:
 7. 9. A composition consisting of an isolated nucleic acid whose sequence consists of at least 15 contiguous nucleotides or more of a sequence of a region encoding a polypcptide having cereulide synthesis activity in the nucleotide sequence of SEQ ID NO: 6, or at least 15 bp or more of the sequence complementary to the nucleotide sequence of the region, wherein the nucleic acid has the nucleotide sequence of any one selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NO:10, SEQ ID NO: 11, SEQ ID NO: 12, SEQ ID NO: 13, SEQ ID NO: 14, SEQ ID NO: 15, SEQ ID NO: 16, SEQ ID NO: 17, SEQ ID NO: 18, and SEQ ID NO:
 19. 10. A kit for detecting a cereulide polynucleotide, comprising the nucleic acid described in claim
 9. 